"In 1950, three years after Jackie Robinson first walked onto the diamond at Ebbets Field, the all-white, upper-crust US Lawn Tennis Association opened its door just a crack to receive a powerhouse player who would integrate "the game of royalty." The player was a street-savvy young Black woman from Harlem named Althea Gibson who was about as out-of-place in that rarefied and intolerant world as any aspiring tennis champion could be. Her tattered...

"Against a backdrop of ongoing resistance to racial desegregation and strident calls for Black Power, the NBA in the 1970s embodied the nation’s imagined descent into disorder. A new generation of Black players entered the league then, among them Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Spencer Haywood, and the press and public were quick to blame this cohort for the supposed decline of pro basketball, citing drugs, violence, and greed. Basketball became a symbol...

"Satchel Paige. Josh Gibson. Jackie Robinson. These all-star baseball players conjure up an image of the golden age of the game, as well as a time in America when the world was dramatically divided by race. Most of us know the story of Robinson breaking the color barrier to become the first Black major league player, but the history leading up to that dramatic moment is a powerful story of athletic prowess, business development, and cultural change....

April 15, 1947, marked the most important opening day in baseball history. When Jackie Robinson stepped onto the diamond that afternoon at Ebbets Field, he became the first black man to break into major-league baseball in the twentieth century. World War II had just ended. Democracy had triumphed. Now Americans were beginning to press for justice on the home front-and Robinson had a chance to lead the way.He was an unlikely hero. He had little experience...

"Commentators, coaches, and fans alike have long touted the diverse rosters of leagues like the NFL and MLB as sterling examples of a post-racial America. Yet decades after Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their fists in a display of Black power and pride, and years after Colin Kaepernick shocked the world by kneeling for the national anthem, the role Black athletes and coaches are expected to perform - both on and off the field - still can be...

"Before there was Colin Kaepernick, there was Fritz Pollard. The first Black quarterback to play in the NFL, Pollard was a dynamo, leading his team to a national championship, drawing record crowds, and earning the highest salary in the league. He was also subject to a constant stream of racist abuse. Spectators jeered and threw rocks, and opposing players singled him out, using the cover of the game to pummel the only Black man on the field. It would...

In 1955, when racial segregation defined the South, two groups of twelve-year-old boys stepped onto a baseball field in a non-violent act of cultural defiance that would change the course of history.

"Louis Moore looks at the history of Black activist athletes and the important role of the Black community in insisting that the concept of fair play should apply not only to sports but to all segments of society. Arranged thematically, the book details Jackie Robinson's entry into baseball in 1945, when he signed with the Dodgers, and includes the revolt of Black athletes in the late 1960s, symbolized by Tommie Smith and John Carlos famously raising...

"A biography about baseball legend Jackie Robinson featuring figures whose lives were altered by "the great experiment," as the integration of baseball was called during his time"--Provided by publisher.

"A picture book biography highlighting the early years of African American figure skater Mabel Fairbanks, who later became an Olympic coach and was inducted into the US Figure Skating Hall of Fame"-- Provided by publisher.